A question around the 1924 Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary Half Dollar

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by leeg, Nov 11, 2019.

  1. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

    I'm pretty sure this coin is not in anyone's top 20 or even 40 maybe. It was a somewhat big deal in 1924 though. This is one I purchased from Michael Printz back in the day, been sold.

    Mike Printz Image - HugoObvA.png

    Does anyone else own one or has ever owned one? Either way, let's see them.
     
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  3. longshot

    longshot Enthusiast Supporter

    Very nice. I do have one, an MS 63 in a 2nd generation PCGS slab. Mostly white. I've been unable to get an even half decent photo....but I like the design myself. Maybe @green18 has one to post.
     
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  4. TheFinn

    TheFinn Well-Known Member

    Another of George Morgan's artistic renderings on a US coin - the last coin he did before he died on January 4, 1925. Too bad he had the Barbers keeping him from rising to the top in his prime.
     
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  5. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    I'm not a fan at all of the Morgan dollar, but I respect some of his other coin designs.

    Still, I wish both Morgan and the Barbers hadn't controlled US coin designs for so long. I'd much rather have seen more from St. Gaudens, Weinman, Fraser...
     
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  6. messydesk

    messydesk Well-Known Member

  7. ksparrow

    ksparrow Coin Hoarder Supporter

    I'll have to see if I have one (withimages). i'm Huguenot on my mother's side.
     
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  8. Dougmeister

    Dougmeister Well-Known Member

    I love the design. It's on my bucket list, for sure.
     
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  9. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    I think I've got one in an old ANAC's holder. I'll do some searching and check back with you folks in the AM.......
     
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  10. LakeEffect

    LakeEffect Average Circulated Supporter

    An attractive coin with an interesting back story.
    And who doesn't like saying "Walloon"?
     
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  11. johnmilton

    johnmilton Well-Known Member

    Your piece looks better than mine, which is a white MS-64.

    But no, this commemative coin does not excite great interest among collectors.
     
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  12. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    I've got a pic on photobucket, but those 'pukes' hazed it out because I'm over my bandwidth limit and refuse to pay the extortionists.....
     
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  13. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

    In February thru April, 1924, 142,080 pieces were coined at the Philadelphia Mint with 80 pieces reserved for annual assay and 87,000 sold for a $1 each to the public. A quantity of 55,000 pieces went back to the Treasury Department, which placed the coins into circulation.3 Designed by George T. Morgan chief engraver of the mint, used designs suggested by Dr. John Baer Stoudt. Distributed by The National Huguenot-Walloon New Netherland Commission, Inc., Rev. John Baer Stoudt, director. Associated with the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.

    3. Cf. p. 29 of Coinage of Commemorative 50-cent pieces (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1936) and a letter from Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon to Hon. Randolph Perkins, chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, January 31, 1930, which states that 55,000 were returned to the mint and then placed into circulation.


    . . . In 1924, from May 17 through 22, Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary celebrations were held in New York City. Among the activities paid for, at least in part, from the profit derived from the sale of the commemorative coins was the dedication of the National Huguenot Memorial Church at Huguenot Park, Staten Island, on the afternoon of May 18th. . . Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (1519-1572; who died 52 years before the settlement in question!) and William the Silent (1533-1584; first *stadtholder of the Netherlands, who had also been dead for a long while by the time of the 1624 settlement). Both of these individuals were associated with Protestantism and the Calvinist church, a tenuous historical connection at best with the 1624 landing, although a brochure noted they were ‘champions of the Huguenots.’ Debate raged concerning the appropriateness of these portraits withy the reasonable conclusion that they were irrelevant to the subject being commemorated. The reverse bore a depiction of the ship Nieuq Nederland. Morgan’s models were subject to approval and modification by James Earle Fraser, and this was done.12

    * In the Low Countries, stadtholder (Dutch: stadhouder, Dutch pronunciation: [ˈstɑtˌɦʌudər]) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader.

    The title was used for the official tasked with maintaining peace and provincial order in the early Dutch Republic and, at times, became de facto head of state of the Dutch Republic during the 16th to 18th centuries, which was an effectively hereditary role. For the last half century of its existence, it became an officially hereditary role and thus a monarchy (though maintaining republican pretence) under Prince William IV. His son, Prince William V, was the last stadtholder of the republic, whose own son, King William I, became the first king of the Netherlands. The Dutch monarchy is only distantly related to the first stadtholder of the young Republic, William of Orange, the leader of the successful Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire, his line having died out with William III.

    The title stadtholder is roughly comparable to England's historic title Lord Lieutenant.

    1. See Taxay pp. 70-73, pages which also reprint an interesting letter from Fraser to Congressman Vestal, telling of the Mint’s hostile posture toward outside artists.

    2 Commemorative Coins of the United States; A Complete Encyclopedia, Q. David Bowers. Published by Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc., Box 1224, Wolfeboro, NH 03894, 1991, pp. 174.

    100_1758A  2.png

    From a book in my Numismatic Library.
     
  14. Dougmeister

    Dougmeister Well-Known Member

    ... plus, if not *the* longest, it *has* to be in the top 10 longest names of any U.S. commemorative ;-)

    "1924 Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary Half Dollar" <whew!>
     
  15. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

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